Bad news for WKRP on DVD

[dlemond]

This is from The Digital Bits:

www.digitalbits.com

Sadly, two TV series you won't be seeing on DVD any time soon are Miami Vice and WKRP in Cincinnati. Video Store Magazine has reported that Universal claims a DVD release of Miami Vice is nearly impossible because of the complicated music clearance issues. We have personal knowledge that the same is true with Fox's WKRP in Cincinnati. Both shows used a great deal of then contemporary music as part of their soundtracks. The problem is, at the time these shows were produced, no one was thinking about future home video and DVD releases. So the license agreements with the music industry to use these songs didn't apply to future home video use. That means that they studios would have to re-license each song - which can literally cost millions of dollars per episode. You'd like to think the music industry would be flexible in working out new agreements to at least make DVD releases possible, but given the sad state of the music industry these days and their shotgun approach to enforcing copyright, I wouldn't hold my breath.

[James]

I may be going off topic here, but does this mean that we will not likely find The Wonder Years on DVD in the future? (It used musical excerpts of songs from the Billboard charts, but from the 1960s and 1970s, even though it was filmed in the 1980s and 1990s.)

[dlemond]

Originally posted by James
I may be going off topic here, but does this mean that we will not likely find The Wonder Years on DVD in the future? (It used musical excerpts of songs from the Billboard charts, but from the 1960s and 1970s, even though it was filmed in the 1980s and 1990s.)

It means that studios have to pay for the songs.

Some shows on dvd are changing the songs- like Wiseguy.

The show Profiler is actually eliminating an episode from its dvd set because a song is so integral to the episode and they couldn't afford to pay for it.

Freaks and Geeks is supposedly paying for all the songs and therefore the dvd set will be more expensive (see my thread on this board). I think this is the way to go, because I know I would pay more money to keep my favorite shows intact.

So I suspect The Wonder Years will pay for their songs.

[k272br]

This saddens me that WKRP will probably never seen the way it was meant to. It's frustrating for a big WKRP fan such as myself.

[jericho]

We should all be blaming the RIAA (recording industry association of America) for the high-price song rights issue. They want insane amounts of money for rights to music in a performance now days. All they are doing by jacking up the price for song performances, is losing money for the artists, when they are supposed to be in business to make money for the artists. (for instance if WKRP was on DVD now, the artists who have songs featured on it could be making some amount of money. But since the price is so high, the DVD isn't released and instead the artists make nothing. This is the case for countless other shows.) The RIAA has shown nothing but greed with new mediums of technology over the past few years. They look at new technology as a way to make a quick buck. (i.e. create all kinds of new royalty rates for mediums that never existed before, like DVD and internet and satellite radio.)

This involves more than just DVD music licencing rates. They actually got congress to pass a law called the Digital Millinium Copyright Act or DMCA. This law was passed with so many twisted and missunderstood notions its ridiculous, but within the law it creates a brand new artist royalty rate for internet broadcasting and satellite radio; a royality that FM and AM radio has never had to pay. Traditional FM and AM music royalties are for songwriter only. It was always deemed fair that the exposure of the artists being played was enough compensation for artist royalties on FM and AM. But even though internet and satellite radio have the technology beyond what any traditional station can do such as display song info like artist, title, album etc., as well as linking listeners directly to an online store to buy the music, its not enough I guess. They convinced congress that they still need an artists royalty fee.

And I won't even get into the tactics that the RIAA has used to convince america that downloading music is such a big problem. (Let me just say, its not a problem like the RIAA says, in fact they would be deeper in the hole if it weren't for the advent of downloading music on the internet.)

Citizens should boycott the RIAA. Artists who are represented by them should express their dissapproval for how they are being represented and take whatever measure to stop the RIAA's tatics. (using celebrity status to show the other side of things would be ideal, since there is no powerful opposing organization to refute anything the RIAA says)

I could go on an on about the RIAA, but if you want to know more about their abuse, check out http://www.boycott-riaa.com/

[Dr. Thong]

This is foolish on the recording industry's part because it's depriving them and (hopefully) the original artists of some income.

All I know is if I were a producer of a show, I'd lock in those music rights for all media.